A real-life Hamburglar has struck at a Maine McDonald's -

A real-life Hamburglar has struck at a Maine McDonald's - 


Police say a young man, seemingly inspired by the pattie purloining character once featured in McDonald's advertising campaigns, ran between a car and the takeout window at the Augusta restaurant Sunday night as an employee handed a bag of food to a driver.
A witness flagged down an officer leaving a nearby convenience store.
Lt. Christopher Massey, acting on a description of the hungry thief, found him in the parking lot of a rival fast food restaurant diving into a McDonald's bag.
Massey tells the Kennebec Journal the suspect swore and ran into the woods. He was never caught.
Massey says the three young men who had their food stolen didn't know the burger thief.
McDonald's replaced the stolen food, worth about $20.




Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/03/27/hamburglar-strikes-at-maine-mcdonalds/?test=latestnews

Chinese Gangster's Stolen Cell Phone Photos Go Viral -

Chinese Gangster's Stolen Cell Phone Photos Go Viral -

The new viral meme of the week: Chinese Gangster-ing.

Photos of a man who is thought to be a Chinese gangster are spreading across the Internet. The portly tough-guy throws caution to the wind as he bares his belly while showing off piles of money, fancy cars and, of course, a puppy.

There is no information on who the man in the photos is, or who uploaded them, but nonetheless they are here for our veiwing pleasure:

Read more -
http://main.aol.com/2012/03/23/chinese-gangsters-stolen-cell-phone-pictures_n_1376205.html

'Cat-sized' rats invade Florida Keys; Grow Up to 9lbs... -

'Cat-sized' rats invade Florida Keys; Grow Up to 9lbs... - 
 

The Florida Keys' battle with an invasive species of giant rats isn't over yet.


On Grassy Key, a glut of Gambian giant pouched rats — originally bred and released by a local — have been foiling conservation officials' efforts to eradicate them, KeysNet reported Sunday.


Officials worry that if the hungry cat-sized rats make it to the mainland, they could wipe out some crops and upset delicate ecological balance.


"We thought we had them whipped as of 2009," said Scott Hardin, exotic species coordinator for Florida's Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.


About 20 of the creatures, which grow to nine pounds and are often mistaken for possums, were trapped on the island during a trio of commission efforts last year, Hardin said.


"I would not imagine there's more than another couple of dozen at most. We've caught them all within a half-mile of each other," he said.


"We think they have not moved far but they clearly reproduced," he added.


Plans are in place to begin another round of trapping of the vermin in July or August.


The massive rodents first appeared on the island over ten years ago after a local exotic pets breeder let some escape, and they've proved plenty pesky since.


Read more - 
http://www.nbcmiami.com/news/local/NATL-Florida-Keys-Cat-Sized-Nine-Pound-Rats-Invasion-144216655.html 

Scientists: Venice sinking five times faster than thought -

Scientists: Venice sinking five times faster than thought - 
 

Venice appears to have more nicknames than street names. It’s known as the "Queen of the Adriatic," the "City of Water," "City of Masks," "City of Bridges," "The Floating City," and "City of Canals."
But is Venice destined to become "The Divers' Paradise" much faster than we thought? New research by U.S. scientists suggests it is sinking more than five times faster than experts in Venice believe.
Saying that the city is sinking is just about as obvious as saying that the wind will always blow in Chicago. It’s just a thing of nature. And there’s nothing anybody can do to stop it.  


While Venetians and tourists know that Venice's appeal is due to its undeniable beauty, with its Gothic and Byzantine palazzos appearing to float on the canals and lagoon, much of the city's allure comes from the fact that it appears to be disappearing.
So you don’t need a scientist to tell you that Venice is sinking. In fact, sometimes they tell you otherwise. Back in the 1980s Venetians rejoiced at the news that the city had finally stabilized.  But, to use an Italian sailor’s jargon, that theory “loses water from all sides.”
It’s quite obvious to the naked eye (or rather, to the naked ankle when it floods) that parts of Venice are flooding more and more often. To tourists, walking in a flooded St. Mark’s Square might be a unique photo opportunity, but to Venetians it’s a sign of things to come. 


Read more - 
http://worldnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/03/26/10863037-scientists-venice-sinking-five-times-faster-than-thought 

Popcorn Has More Antioxidants Than Fruit and Vegetables, Study Says -

Popcorn Has More Antioxidants Than Fruit and Vegetables, Study Says - 
 

Popcorn, when it's not slathered in butter and coated in salt, is already known to be a healthy snack food and now a group of scientists say it may even top fruits and vegetables in antioxidant levels.
The researchers said they found great amounts of antioxidants known as polyphenols in popcorn and explained that the substances are more concentrated in the snack, which is made up of about four percent water, while the antioxidants are more diluted in fruits and vegetables, many of which are made of up 90 percent water.
That's the same principle that gives dried fruits an antioxidant edge over their fresh counterparts.

One serving of popcorn has up to 300mg of polyphenols, which is much higher than previously believed and nearly double the 160mg for all fruits per serving, according to the researchers, who presented their findings at a meeting of the American Chemical Society in San Diego.
They also found that the crunchy hulls of the popcorn have the highest concentration of polyphenols and fiber.
"Those hulls deserve more respect," said researcher Joe Vinson of the University of Scranton in Pennsylvania. "They are nutritional gold nuggets."
The scientists warned, though, preparation is key to culling popcorn's health benefits.
"Air-popped popcorn has the lowest number of calories, of course," Vinson guided.




Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/health/2012/03/26/popcorn-has-more-antioxidants-than-fruit-and-vegetables-study-says/

Easter Egg Hunt Canceled Due To Aggressive Parents - parents can't stay out of their children's lives -

Easter Egg Hunt Canceled Due To Aggressive Parents - parents can't stay out of their children's lives - 
 

Organizers of an annual Easter egg hunt attended by hundreds of children have canceled this year's event, citing the behavior of aggressive parents who swarmed into the tiny park last year, determined that their kids get an egg.


That hunt was over in seconds, to the consternation of egg-less tots and their own parents. Too many parents had jumped a rope set up to allow only children into Bancroft Park in a historic area of Colorado Springs.


Organizers say the event has outgrown its original intent of being a neighborhood event.


Parenting observers cite the cancellation as a prime example of "helicopter parents" — those who hover over their children and are involved in every aspect of their children's lives — sports, school, and increasingly work — to ensure that they don't fail, even at an Easter egg hunt.


That's the perfect metaphor for millennial children. They (parents) can't stay out of their children's lives. They don't give their children enough chances to learn from hard knocks, mistakes.
- Ron Alsop, author of "The Trophy Kids Grow Up"
"They couldn't resist getting over the rope to help their kids," said Ron Alsop, a former Wall Street Journal reporter and author of The Trophy Kids Grow Up, which examines the "millennial children" generation.


"That's the perfect metaphor for millennial children. They (parents) can't stay out of their children's lives. They don't give their children enough chances to learn from hard knocks, mistakes."


Alsop and others say the parenting phenomenon began in earnest when Baby Boomers who decorated their cars with "Baby on Board" signs in the 1980s began having children. It has prompted at least two New York companies to establish "take your parent to work day" for new recruits as parents remain involved even after their children become adults.


Last April's egg hunt, sponsored by the Old Colorado City Association, attracted hundreds of parents and children and experienced a few technical difficulties, said Mazie Baalman, owner of Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory and sponsor of the event.


There was no place to hide the plastic eggs, which were filled with donated candy or coupons redeemable at nearby businesses. So thousands of eggs were placed in plain view on the grass. A bullhorn to start the event malfunctioned, so Baalman, master of ceremonies, used a public address system that was hard to hear.


"So everybody thinks you said 'Go,' and everybody goes, and it's over in seconds," Baalman said. "If one parent gets in there, other parents say, 'If one can get in we all can get in,' and everybody goes."


Read more - 
http://www.npr.org/2012/03/26/149379355/easter-egg-hunt-canceled-due-to-aggressive-parents?ps=cprs 

Tungsten-Filled 1 Kilo Gold Bar Found In The UK -

Tungsten-Filled 1 Kilo Gold Bar Found In The UK - 
 


The last time a story of Tungsten-filled gold appeared on the scene was just two years ago, and involved a 500  gram bar of gold full of tungsten, at the W.C. Heraeus foundry, the world's largest metal refiner and fabricator. It also became known that said "gold" bar originated from an unnamed bank. It is now time to rekindle the Tungsten Spirits with a report from ABC Bullion of Australia, which provides photographic evidence of a new gold bar that has been drilled out and filled with tungsten rods, this time not in Germany but in an unnamed city in the UK, where it was intercepted by a scrap metals dealer, and was supplied with its original certificate. The reason the bar attracted attention is that it was 2 grams underweight. Upon cropping it was uncovered that about 30-40% of the bar weight was tungsten. So two documented incidents in two years: isolated? Or indication of the same phenomonenon of precious metal debasement that marked the declining phase of the Roman empire. Only then it was relatively public for anyone who cared to find out on their own. Now, with the bulk of popular physical gold held in top secret, private warehouses around the world, where it allegedly backs the balance sheets of the world's central banks, yet nobody can confirm its existence, nor audit the actual gold content, it is understandable why increasingly more are wondering: just how much gold is there? And alongside that - while gold, (or is it GLD?), can be rehypothecated, can one do the same with tungsten?


Read more -
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/tungsten-filled-1-kilo-gold-bar-found-uk 

10 Reasons Why Nothing You Do On The Internet Will EVER Be Private Again -

10 Reasons Why Nothing You Do On The Internet Will EVER Be Private Again - 
 

The Internet is rapidly being transformed into a Big Brother control grid where privacy rights are being systematically strangled to death.  The control freaks that run things have become absolutely obsessed with watching, tracking, monitoring and recording virtually everything that you do on the Internet.  One thing that you can count on is that nothing you do on the Internet will ever be private again.  In fact, if you are obsessed with privacy then the last place you want to be is on the Internet.  Most Americans have absolutely no idea how far Internet surveillance has advanced in the past few years.  At this point, it would be hard to imagine any place less private than the Internet.  Do not ever put anything on the Internet that you would not want the authorities or your employer to hold you accountable for.  Basically, the Internet is creating a permanent dossier on each one of us, and we contribute to this process by freely posting gigantic volumes of information about ourselves on social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter.  The Internet is the greatest tool for mass communication that the world has perhaps ever seen, and it gives average citizens the ability to communicate with each other like never before, but there is also a downside to using the Internet.  Everything that we do on the Internet is being watched, monitored and recorded and there is no longer any such thing as Internet privacy.  If you think that you still have any privacy on the Internet, then you are either ignorant of what is going on or you are being delusional.


The following are 10 reasons why nothing you do on the Internet will ever be private again....


#1 The Federal Government Can Now Retain Your Internet Activity For Five Years - Even If You Have No Links To Terrorism


In the past, the National Counterterrorism Center could only retain information about you for 180 days if you did not have any links to terrorism.


Well, that has now completely changed.


Attorney General Eric Holder has signed new guidelines which will now allow the National Counterterrorism Center to hold on to your private information (including your Internet activity) for five years.


But an extra four and a half extra years is no big deal, right?


#2 Potential Employers Are Demanding To See Your Internet Activity


In the past, potential employers would pull up the social media profiles of job candidates in order to get a better idea of who they might be hiring.


But now, many potential employers are actually demanding the passwords to the Facebook accounts of job applicants.


The following comes from a recent CBS News report....


The bad news is that employers are increasingly asking job seekers for their Facebook and other social-media passwords as part of the process of vetting them.


While it's unclear how widespread that practice is, there's plenty of anecdotal evidence to suggest that it is happening with increasing frequency, as CBS MoneyWatch's Suzanne Lucas details. You can, of course, refuse to give a job interviewer your passwords. But expect your employment application to hit the round file, or the trash, if you don't cooperate.


#3 Law Enforcement Is Watching You


Do you remember the father that posted that "Facebook Parenting for the troubled teen" video that went wildly viral all over the Internet earlier this year?


That video was watched more than 31 million times, but it also resulted in both the police and Child Protective Services officials visiting his home.


So be careful what you post on YouTube.  If you post something that they don't like, law enforcement personnel may come knocking on your door.


#4 Government Agencies Are Watching You


The FBI, the CIA, the Department of Homeland Security, the U.S. military and the Federal Reserve have all announced plans to systematically monitor social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter.


These agencies have lists of "keywords" that they use to search for posts that they want to look at.


For example, the words "attack", "exercise" and "epidemic" are just three of the keywords that the Department of Homeland Security is known to use.


So keep that in mind the next time you post something on Facebook or Twitter.


The following is from a recent Salon article....


In 2010, the DHS National Operations Center established a Media Monitoring Capability (MMC).  According to an internal agency document, MMC is tasked with “leveraging news stories, media reports and postings on social media sites… for operationally relevant data, information, analysis, and imagery.”  The definition of operationally relevant data includes “media reports that reflect adversely on DHS and response activities,” “partisan or agenda-driven sites,” and a final category ambiguously labeled “research/studies, etc.”


#5 Barack Obama Is Watching You


The Obama campaign has launched "truth teams" which will be scouring the Internet for any rumors that are "not true" about Barack Obama during the 2012 presidential campaign.


So if you post something on the Internet about Barack Obama that the Obama campaign does not consider to be truthful, there is a good chance that a "truth team" will be examining what you have written.


#6 They Are Monitoring And Recording All Talk Radio (Including Internet Talk Radio)


As I have written about previously, the FBI has hired a company in Virginia to systematically record talk radio programs (including Internet talk radio programs) all over the United States.  The goal of this effort is to collect "potential evidence", whatever that means.  The following comes from an article by Mark Weaver of WMAL.com....


If you call a radio talk show and get on the air, you might be recorded by the FBI.


The FBI has awarded a $524,927 contract to a Virginia company to record as much radio news and talk programming as it can find on the Internet.


The FBI says it is not playing big brother by policing the airwaves, but rather seeking access to what airs as potential evidence.


#7 Foreign Governments Are Watching You


It isn't just the U.S. government that is watching you on the Internet.  The truth is that governments all over the world could be monitoring your Internet activity and you may never even know it.


In fact, the level of Internet surveillance in some countries is arguably even greater than it is in the United States.


For example, a new bill that has been introduced in Canada would give government authorities unprecedented power to monitor the Internet activities of Canadians....


The so-called “lawful access” legislation, tabled in the House of Commons Tuesday, will require Internet service providers and cellphone companies to hand over basic customer information — including name, address, phone number, email address, and ISP addresses — to authorities when requested, without the need for a warrant.


Dubbed “online spying” by critics, the bill is also expected to require ISPs and phone companies to install equipment for real-time surveillance and create new police powers designed to obtain access to the surveillance data.


The UK government is going even farther than that.  A recent UK government report calls for ISPs to remove "extremist material" from the Internet.  The following is an excerpt from that report....


The Counter-Terrorism Internet Referral Unit does limited but valuable work in challenging internet service providers to remove violent extremist material where it contravenes the law. We suggest that the Government work with internet service providers in the UK to develop a Code of Conduct committing them to removing violent extremist material, as defined for the purposes of section 3 of the Terrorism Act 2006. Many relevant websites are hosted abroad: the Government should also therefore strive towards greater international cooperation to tackle this issue.


French President Nicolas Sarkozy is taking things even farther than that. He recently stated that anyone in France that is caught regularly visiting websites "preaching hatred" will be prosecuted.


So what constitutes "extremist material" and what constitutes "preaching hatred"?


Unfortunately, almost every government on earth has different definitions for those things.


#8 We Are All Being Encouraged To Spy On One Another On The Internet


For the U.S. government, it isn't enough just to have bureaucrats and spooks spying on you.  Now they want us to spy on one another.


The Department of Homeland Security has been heavily promoting the "See Something, Say Something" campaign.  The idea is that if you see something "suspicious" that you should report it to the authorities.


Unfortunately, the definition of "suspicious activity" has expanded so dramatically in recent years that it could include just about anything.


The paranoia among our leaders has gotten completely out of control.  For example, a while back U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman requested that Google install a "terrorist button" on all Blogger.com blogs so that readers could easily flag "terrorist content" for authorities.


Thankfully nothing like that has been implemented yet, but that is the direction that we are heading as a nation.


#9 Your ISP Is Watching You


Most Americans have not even heard about this yet, but the truth is that starting later on this year your ISP will be spying on you to make sure that you are not downloading any copyrighted material.


SOPA and PIPA may have failed for now, but the Obama administration has brokered a deal between the entertainment industry and the major Internet providers that is absolutely unprecedented.  This deal will go into effect on July 12th.  The following is from a recent Raw Story article....


If you download potentially copyrighted software, videos or music, your Internet service provider (ISP) has been watching, and they’re coming for you.


Specifically, they’re coming for you on Thursday, July 12.


That’s the date when the nation’s largest ISPs will all voluntarily implement a new anti-piracy plan that will engage network operators in the largest digital spying scheme in history, and see some users’ bandwidth completely cut off until they sign an agreement saying they will not download copyrighted materials.


Word of the start date has been largely kept secret since ISPs announced their plans last June. The deal was brokered by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), and coordinated by the Obama Administration.


So be careful what you download on the Internet.


Your ISP will be watching.


#10 The NSA Is Watching Everyone And Everything


It is safe to assume that any digital communication that you ever make will be intercepted and monitored by the NSA.


Of course this has been an open secret for years, but now the NSA is taking things to a whole new level.


The NSA has been constructing the largest spy center in the history of the world out in the Utah desert.  The following is how a recent Wired article described this new facility....


Under construction by contractors with top-secret clearances, the blandly named Utah Data Center is being built for the National Security Agency. A project of immense secrecy, it is the final piece in a complex puzzle assembled over the past decade. Its purpose: to intercept, decipher, analyze, and store vast swaths of the world’s communications as they zap down from satellites and zip through the underground and undersea cables of international, foreign, and domestic networks. The heavily fortified $2 billion center should be up and running in September 2013. Flowing through its servers and routers and stored in near-bottomless databases will be all forms of communication, including the complete contents of private emails, cell phone calls, and Google searches, as well as all sorts of personal data trails—parking receipts, travel itineraries, bookstore purchases, and other digital “pocket litter.”


So please do not assume that anything you do on the Internet will ever be private again.


The online world has now become a world where there is absolutely no privacy.


Read more -
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/10-reasons-why-nothing-you-do-on-the-internet-will-ever-be-private-again 

There Are Now More Americans In Jail Than There Were In Stalin's Gulag Archipelago -

There Are Now More Americans In Jail Than There Were In Stalin's Gulag Archipelago - 
 



There are now more Americans in jail -- 6 million -- than there were in Stalin's Gulag, reports Fareed Zakaria, in a column called "Incarceration Nation."
And it's not just a relative population thing.
The U.S. has 760 prisoners per 100,000 citizens.
How does that compare to other countries?
It's 7X-10X as high:
Japan has 63 per 100,000,
Germany has 90 per 100,000
France has 96 per 100,000
South Korea has 97 per 100,000
­Britain has 153 per 100,000
And it's also a relatively new phenomenon: In 1980, the U.S. only had 150 prisoners per 100,000 citizens.
What's to blame?
The "War on Drugs."
More than half of America's 6 million prisoners are in jail for drug convictions, with 80% of those in jail for "possession."




Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-many-americans-in-jail-2012-3

Big Brother just got scarier: Japanese CCTV camera can scan 36 million faces per second - and recognise anyone -

Big Brother just got scarier: Japanese CCTV camera can scan 36 million faces per second - and recognise anyone - 
 



A new camera technology from Hitachi Hokusai Electric can scan days of camera footage instantly, and find any face which has EVER walked past it.
Its makers boast that it can scan 36 million faces per second. 
The technology raises the spectre of governments - or other organisations - being able to 'find' anyone instantly simply using a passport photo or a Facebook profile.



The 'trick' is that the camera 'processes' faces as it records, so that all faces which pass in front of it are recorded and stored instantly.
Faces are stored as a searchable 'biometric' record, storing the unique 
When the police - or anyone else - want to search for a particular individual, they're searching through a gallery of pre-indexed faces, rather than a messy library of footage.

'We think this system is suitable for customers that have a relatively large-scale surveillance system, such as railways, power companies, law enforcement, and large stores,' says the company.
The company aims to make the system available within the next tax year, according to a report in DigInfo.
The system does have limitations - it can only scan faces within a certain field of view in front of the camera, and faces have to be at least 40x40 pixels in size to be indexed by the system.




Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2119386/Could-governments-recognise-ANYONE-instantly-CCTV-Japanese-camera-scan-36-million-faces-second.html